Fines will be imposed for advertising on banned social networks. What you need to know
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- Fines will be imposed for advertising on banned social networks. What you need to know
The State Duma has passed a law prohibiting the placement of advertising on resources deemed undesirable or prohibited in Russia. The law will enter into force on September 1, 2025. Why this innovation was adopted and what it will lead to is in the Izvestia article.
What is the essence of the law
• Deputies of the State Duma adopted amendments to the federal laws "On Countering Extremist Activities" and "On Advertising" in the second and third readings. As a result, from September 1, 2025, advertising on websites, web pages and applications belonging to undesirable organizations is prohibited. The same rule applies to other resources that are blocked according to information legislation. The bill was considered in the first reading back in July 2024.
• Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin explained that despite the fact that a number of social networks are blocked in Russia, whose owners are openly unfriendly towards Russia and spreading deliberately false information, citizens and companies continue to use them to advertise their goods and services. The lower house decided to protect the interests of the Russian Federation by cutting off one of the sources of income for owners of prohibited information resources.
What will be the punishment
• Advertisers and distributors of advertisements will be responsible for non-compliance with the ban. Fines will amount to: for citizens — from 2 to 2.5 thousand rubles; for officials — from 4 to 20 thousand rubles; for legal entities — from 100 to 500 thousand rubles.
• The ban applies not only to social networks, but also to a number of websites — resources of undesirable, extremist and terrorist organizations. The State maintains a list of them and regularly updates the data. There is also a registry of blocked sites where the ban on advertising also applies.
• Barter agreements that do not have financial settlements are also classified as advertising. Usually, barter involves cooperation, in which a company transfers its goods or services to a blogger in exchange for their mention on social networks. The blogger shares a positive review, drawing attention to the brand, while the money is not directly involved.
How much do they earn in banned networks
• Major Russian bloggers have significantly increased their income on blocked social networks, despite their ban. According to the Association of Bloggers and Agencies, Instagram alone (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) increased advertising revenue by almost 20% in 11 months of 2024, amounting to 130 million rubles. In total, advertisers' expenses for advertising on Instagram, X (ex. Twitter) and Facebook (also owned by Meta) have grown eightfold over the same period compared to last year, amounting to 4.7 billion rubles.
• Bloggers have not yet managed to transfer their audience to legal platforms en masse. However, Russian social networks are actively developing their services and trying to catch up with foreign competitors in this regard.
What can a ban lead to?
• Banning ads can reduce the activity of content authors, for whom users log into the social network. However, it is unlikely that the changes will be global. Bloggers are likely to stay on banned sites in order to direct subscribers to other resources where monetization is possible. Advertising can also become even more native.
• Ordinary users may perceive the ban as a "cleansing" of social networks. However, some are likely to lose interest in banned platforms if the creators' content becomes less diverse.
When writing the material, Izvestia took into account the opinions of:
- Anastasia Krasnikova, co-founder of the Consulting Center at the Association of Bloggers and Agencies;
- lawyer Svetlana Kuzevanova.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
